Greenhouse Glimpses

Light on the subject

2009-10-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately with winterizing outside plant beds and getting firewood so I haven't spent as much time in my new greenhouse as I want. I did want to talk about the lights and barrelponics though a little bit. The above photo shows what type light I settled on. It is a 600 watt High Pressure Sodium lamp with a parabolic reflector. I got two of them and boy, does it ever throw the light out. Here is a close up of the underside.

The reflector is 3 feet across. Should be sufficient. This next photo is taken from the field outside my greenhouse and shows how bright the light is.

Here's another shot. But in this one notice that I have my insulating panels up to show the contrast.

Now back to Barrelponics. The following photo shows a view of the complete system. The bottom tank holds the fish. The top tank is where the water from the fish tank is pumped up to. and the two half barrels, side by side are the grow beds. I have heard that the inventor, Travis Hughey, at http:/www.fastonline.org, is working on a new system that does not need an electric pump and will be bigger. So far this one has been really fun for Hank and I. Thanks Travis!

Here are my fish in the tank (currently they are goldfish, but someday I want Tilapia). Notice the water draining into the fish tank. It is a natural aerator.

This last photo is another look at the fish in the tank.

Water, Electricity and Lights

2009-10-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

I've been busy working on greenhouse projects this summer, but now that things are slowing down I'll be posting on a more regular basis. This picture shows the Ditch Witch I rented to make the ditch that I put water pipes and electrical wire into. Four feet deep was my goal. I attained three feet.

My ditch was about 120 feet. I was limited initially to 20 amps and now I have 50 amps. The Ditch Witch made the job so much faster than a shovel.

I was running a hose into my greenhouse for my water supply. With my new ditch, I spliced into my well main water line and now have a faucet in the greenhouse. This will make it easier for winter use. I strongly recommend putting your water lines in when you put your foundation in. It was a lot of extra work. I had to dig down four feet to get under the foundation. This photo shows the pvc pipe prior to going in the ditch.

Here we are making the water and electric connections prior to filling in the ditch. Hank was a great help and we spent most of the day talking about our next project....barrelponics. Which I will start on the next post. I will sequence building a barrelponics system, from start to finish.

As you can tell, I have just finished harvesting my summer hydroponics crop. I should have taken a picture. But the exciting thing is...I have lights for the winter crop. I put in two, 600 watt halogen lights with parabolic reflective shields. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I will show you a night photo on the next post.

July Greenhouse Update

2009-07-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

I've been busy building a couple of small geodesic domes for future cold frames. I just brought a new 200 amp electric service box onto my property for the new greenhouse and future expansions.

Here are some photos of what is happening with my hydroponics. Things are growing fast. I have everything off fertilizer and I'm just flushing water through the system. I got too excited at first and planted everything at once and now it is all getting ahead of me as far as use. I am going to harvest everything and start some successional planting so that the growth will be staggered. The red sails lettuce was awesome.

Here's what's happening in the grow box.

The old, traditional greenhouse looks like a jungle right now.

A friend loaned me a few earthboxes to try out. Here is a picture of some tomatoes growing in the earthbox. We've been harvesting since the fourth of July. That was my goal.

Grow Table Etc.

2009-06-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said I would show you my old greenhouse. Remember the high desert extreme weather conditions. I built this one about 6 years ago. We mostly use it for tomatoes and zucchini now. I can't grow tomatoes outdoors in this climate because we get a killing frost during any month of the year. It was 27 degrees three nights ago. But with this greenhouse I can keep harvesting tomatoes until Thanksgiving. My goal is ripe ones by the 4th of July. We'll see.
Here you see the south end of the greenhouse. Notice it is attached to my shop at the north end.

These are Black Russian tomato plants on the left and Brandywine on the right. Both are heirloom varieties. The flowers in the back are on a workbench where I make hanging baskets.

This is a shot of some of the tomatoes on the vine in one of my earthboxes. This is the first year I've used earthboxes. I've always planted directly in the ground. So far everything looks good.

Here are some flowers ready to be planted in baskets. The Martha Washington geranium in the front was purchased for 50 cents from Home Depot because it was almost dead.

Now I'll show you the new addition in my new greenhouse. I built this new grow table because I wanted to try gardening by the foot using the mittleider method. However, I've found it's impossible to by bulk fertilizers like they recommend from the old days. I'll be trying different compost teas and different brewing techniques as well as my earth worm castings. When I find good formulas I will pass them on. If you know of any, please share. PS: It is okay and encouraged to comment on this blog. You can see from the photo that the box slants downward toward the front for drainage. I also used metal roofing for the bottom of the box which I covered with the type of ground cloth used to prevent weeds. This is to keep the dirt in the box and not running out thru the drain holes. By the way, this is not really dirt. It is vermiculite, worm castings, lava rock artificial dirt that you can buy in bales. I think it's mostly peat. You must add nutrients to a combination like this. I'm experimenting with making my own organic nutrients.

Here it is from the front. I will have a seed bed on the bottom where the wire screen is. And grow lights mounted under the box. I plan to grow carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and turnips in this box. The depth is approximately 18 inches. The other measurements are 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. I'm saving room for my aquaponics project.

Here is a top view of the box with a few little lettuce seedlings getting ready for the hydroponic bed.

My red sails lettuce is about ready for harvest. I'll be cutting back nutrients so that we have full lettuce flavor. The good news is that we just passed the summer equinox and my greenhouse has not gotten so hot as to cause bolting which always happens outside about now. There's been enough natural light and my temps are staying between 60 and 75 Farenheit, even when we have had ranges of 20 degrees to 90 degrees. Remember, I put a 65 degree angle on the south face of the greenhouse. The light goes over the top during the summer and goes straight in during the winter. Also, remember that this is a pit design and it is 4 feet below the ground surface.

The next two photos show some of the basil, spinach, cilantro and chard as well as more of the lettuce, both buttercrunch and valmaine.

I am excited at the prospect of continually growing throughout the year. This winter will be a real time of learning for me.

Growing Update

2009-06-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have posted. A few of you may be curious how things are growing in the greenhouse. I must admit...I continue to learn what works, and what doesn't. Here are a few things I have discovered, being new to hydroponics.

In the above photo, I have red sails and buttercrunch lettuce growing in the hydroponics. What I didn't realize is that it is okay to start the plants in the little peat pots, but you must plant them deep enough in the baskets that you put into the hydroponic tubes or they can flop over. In addition to that I now know that the starts should also be put under lights so they don't stretch for the light and get "leggy". That also makes them prone to flopping over. Plants are good at compensating, but why not get it right? That is what this year is all about. Learning and improving as I go.

The second photo shows how some of my cilantro and chard is doing. In this third photo, note the lettuce in the uppermost tier is laying over. I will be avoiding this in the future by planting deeper and using lights prior to the plants going into the hydroponics.

In this photo you can see that my Currant tomato plant is quite happy. Note the basil, spinach, chard and Valmaine lettuce further down.

In addition to what has been previously shown, I just added a couple of tubs with growing medium in which I have planted potatoes. Here they are. We'll see how they do.

The potatoes are Yukon Gold, which I tried last year and they did well. I want to see what they will do in a greenhouse setting.
All in all, things are changing and growing and I am seeing what works and what doesn't. In the next post, I will show you what is happening in my old greenhouse.

Aeroponics, Drip System, and Ebb and Flow

2009-05-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Aeroponics:

Deep Well...this is a rubbermaid tub with an aquarium airstone and an aquarium heater. All items are inexpensive. I drilled four holes in the lid top and put 3 inch diameter baskets in. There are three cucumbers and a tomato plant in the baskets. Remember, the roots don't stay just in the basket. They expand into the deep well. The idea is that the bubbles will pop and spray the water and nutrients onto the medium holding the roots. I started the seeds in rock wool and peat and placed them in lava rock.

Here is what it looks like with the lid off and the water and nutrients cycling.

These will need to be supported with a trellis system later on.

Ebb and flow:

Here are three, inexpensive tubs that I have sprayed the outside blue in order to protect the roots from direct light.

This is a very simple process. Doesn't require a pump or airstone. I plan to be using this as my second stage in keeping the drip system full of plants. Step one is the rock wool in starter trays. Step two is the transfer to the ebb and flow system until true leaves appear. Then they will be transferred to the drip system. This next photo shows the "ebb" part of the system where you lower the bucket so that the nutrient water runs out of the tray. The following photo shows the "flow" part where the bucket is higher than the tray so that the nutrient water flows from the bucket to the tray.

The next photo shows an example of how the trays will look with pots in them. There will of course be more pots in use.

Here are some of the organic nutrients that I am using.

Here is the drip system as it looks today with 60 plants in it.

An up close photo of the drip in use.

My RO water barrel developed a serious drip so I had to replace the black spigot, with this new one that works great.

Progress on Hydroponics etc.

2009-05-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

In the last post I showed how we hung the pipes. Notice in this picture that each pipe is suspended by plumbers strap. The reason we did this was to turn the straps completely over so that the adjustments for the raising and lowering of the pipe was not up at the ceiling, but down near the pipe itself. The end that has the adjustment mechanism is rather short and wouldn't go around the diameter of the pipe and still hang on the hook. The plumbers strap solved this problem.

Also note the 3 inch net pot with the drip system in place. We have 66 of these.

This picture looks confusing, but we are looking at a simple drip system. Notice the RO (Reverse Osmosis) filter on the wall. A hose goes from the filter to the big blue barrel. In the big blue barrel is an aquarium heater, an airstone, and a water pump. Look at the manifold. That is the piece that feeds all the different lines to each pipe. We left enough length on each connection so that we can independently raise or lower each pipe. It looks tangled because there are also drain lines coming back from the pipes into the blue barrel. So, simply put, we have a little brown line running along each big green tube with a drip nozzle set up at each planting hole. The water drips in giving nutrition and water(air also) to the roots. Then it all flows back into the big blue barrel. This will be set on a timer to water as needed.

Reverse Osmosis filter.

This big blue barrel, sitting on the table is really important. The RO system is really slow. We're lucky to get 20 gallons a day. Now, the blue barrel on the floor is where I put in my nutrients, and keep full of the filtered water. But you need lots of filtered water. I'll be using the filtered water for the deep wells, which I will explain later (aeroponics), and the simple ebb and flow system and also I use this water for watering houseplants and seedlings. When the barrel on the floor is full, I then start filling the additional barrel resevoir on the table. Notice it has an off and on spout. This allows gravity feed, when needed, to different systems.

Here is a photo of my greenhouse at present. My next post will show the ebb and flow system and the aeroponics system, as they are being made. The gravel on the floor has really turned out to be perfect, because of all the water I've been spilling. I turned on the drip system and there are no leaks! So far, so good. All questions or suggestions are welcome. I just started 75 seeds to be put into the systems soon.

Setting Up the System and Wind Power

2009-04-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

I'm setting up the hydroponics system. The six inch pipes are suspended from the ceiling in a cascading manner. Note the tie downs wrap around the pipe. Shortly I will be drilling a hole in the pipes at each end and connecting the hooks to the eye bolts. Right now I'm just getting height adjusted so that plants will not shade each other. This is easily adjusted during the growing process with the strap system that we are using. Each pipe will have its own drain and fill line so that there is more flexiblity in the vertical spacing. I will show more detail as we progress.

My son, Simeon is adjusting the straps here.

The white end caps are sealed with silicone around the edge for easy removal so I can clean the pipes as needed. We're hoping for lots of happy roots. Remember, we are going organic in our nutrients.

We decided to install a wind generator. The motor is made from a garbage disposal unit. Hank is really into alternate energy sources. Remember, we are trying to make this a sustainable system. We will be putting solar panels on the roof in the future. All the little pumps and airstones require electricity. We would like this greenhouse to be off the grid. My Dad and Hank are tying down the guy lines attached to the wind genny.

We are attaching clamps to hold the shaft to the building.

Here is the unit installed. Note the hydroponic system that you can see through the window. I am installing a drip system and resevoirs presently and will show you the water pumps, air pumps, airstones, aquarium heaters and the ppm and ph meters in the next post.

Putting Hydroponics Together

2009-04-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

I bought six inch PVC pipe for our hydroponic system. Ten foot lengths. Six each. I planned to hang them from the ceiling, against the north wall. We'll see how it goes together. Notice that I am taking the insulation off because I have to put hangers in.

Here are the 3/8 inch eyebolts. Hope they hold the system up.

Here they are installed. I alternated sides so that it would be an even pull on the rafter.

This is what it looks like with the straps installed. These will be holding up the six inch diameter pipe in a coliseum setting.

Simeon and his son Nathan are drilling the holes every twelve inches along the pipe. We snapped a center line and did pilot holes first.

You can see the 3 inch baskets in place.

This is what it looks like on the inside.

This is what the end cap looks like on the pipe. We still need to drill holes for the water hose that will circulate the organic nutrient solution.

I am painting the whole inside with flat, white latex paint which reflects 98% of the sunlight. Next post will show the completed paint job with hydroponic system in place,...hopefully.

Gravel and Hydroponics

2009-04-05T17:29:00.001-07:00

Here we are throwing the gravel in. We put about 4 inches of gravel on the floor to keep the dust down and help with drainage.

My friend Hank, helped with this part of the project.

We had to go to town to buy pipe for our hydroponic system. I've been scanning the internet, and there are lots of good ideas out there. I've decided to go with 6 inch diameter pvc and do a hanging coliseum. I bought 6o feet of pipe which cost 179 dollars. It's sewer pipe and I am planning to hang it from the ceiling. It is pretty sturdy stuff.

The pipe is in ten foot lengths and tomorrow I will be drilling my 3 inch diameter holes every foot along the length for my basket placement. I will be showing pictures as I progress.

I will be taking some of the silver insulation off the northern wall because I have to drill twelve holes thru the 2 x 8's and place sky hooks for supporting the hydroponic system. I will be showing pictures of each stage. Also, as my hydroponic supplies arrive I will show pictures of what I have ordered. More to come soon... Still planning my organic soil, south wall section.

What NOT To Do

2009-03-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here are two photos of the inside of my pit greenhouse with tools removed and insulation mostly completed. Now is the time to plan for the planting beds and lighting system. What NOT to do is to build the top before finishing the floor, as you will see.

The problem I ran into was this. The floor was dusty, dry dirt. I decided I wanted a gravel floor for drainage and for my air duct venting system. I could have just thrown gravel down on top of what I had, however, greenhouse space is very precious. I also didn't want to block the door from opening with a layer of gravel. So here I am with my buddy Hank, lowering the floor in preparation of putting in gravel.

I told Hank that we were having a work party and I couldn't convince him that the dust mask was not a hat!

This was a lot of unnecessary work. I should have planned my underground venting system and gravel installation before I built the top. It was dusty, hard, slow work. I really appreciated Hank's help.

What NOT to do: Don't borrow an old dump truck.

Don't get me wrong. You should try to save costs wherever you can. I called the gravel pit and just about fainted when they quoted me 300 dollars to deliver gravel to my house. I of course, looking for all short cuts found out that anyone in our county can borrow the old "Soil and Water Conservation" dump truck. It was a long drive to the gravel pit (45 miles one way). After you add gas and the stress from wondering if we would make it there and back, not counting hoping that we wouldn't get a ticket for a number of mechanical inadequacies etc., it would have been cheaper, safer and easier to go ahead and have the company deliver. My problem was that I only wanted 3 and a half yards of gravel, but their minimum was ten yards. In hindsight I see where I could have used the extra gravel in my driveway. All's well that ends well. We made it home safely.

This next photo shows us down to grade (ready for the gravel).

From left to right: Hank, the wizard/inventor, Me the laborer, and Dad the supervisor.

Progress!

2009-03-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

I finished the roof about a week after the photo of us sitting on it was taken (last post). No one took pictures while I was putting metal roofing on. I chose a white color to reflect the sun in the summer. It was pretty easy laying it on top of the plywood and screwing it down. Metal roofing isn't necessary but sure keeps maintenance to a minimum and looks great. Here is a shot from the north.

Here is the west side of the greenhouse. Notice the window that will help with ventilation during the summer. Notice the grey patch on the left. That is a seal over the top of the cement blocks to make it look a little nicer and to help protect the blocks. I may push dirt up against that area and terrace it.

Here is the south side. I still have little holes to patch. I'm using that foam that comes in a spray can that's called "Great Stuff". The two sliding glass doors in the middle open and I took a sliding glass door apart and just used the glass on each end. All the glass is still double paned. I was told that it is better to keep it that way for the insulation factor. You don't lose that much light spectrum coming through the double paned windows.

This is a shot from the east side. You can see the cellar style door entrance. The little door on the top opens up, and the top of the wooden structure lifts up on hinges for large items to go in or out. You can also see the chimney. It's rather primitive. I will be working on the stabilization later on. I got the stove pipe and the stove at a garage sale. Notice also on the top left, the air vent cover. It opens and closes when the fan starts and stops.

Here I am showing how the top lifts up.

Here is the smaller door opening on the top, leading down the stairs to the full sized metal outside door.

We just walked down the stairs into the greenhouse and turned around and are looking at the steps to show you the stove.

You can see on this wall my electrical panel and the attic vent fan that I have installed. I'm getting ready to put the insulation in.

After I put the fiberglass insulation in on the roof and the sides, I put this additional insulation on to keep the water away from the fiberglass insulation and to increase the light reflection. The shiny stuff is a one inch thick, foam board, 4' X 8' , with a foil outer cover.

You can see I have started the insulation on the west wall. My next post will show all the finished insulation, with the shiny aluminum coating. Notice the electrical conduit and outlets. These will be used for lights in the winter and possibly soil heaters. I'm trying to keep electrical usage to a bare minimum. I plan to put solar power in as soon as I can.

I'm in the process now of organizing the interior. I will be building benches and stadium seating style hydroponic beds. I plan to use the German Mittleider method in the middle. I'll show the benches as I build them. There will be bunkbed style benches on the south side and aquaponic barrels at both ends. I used strong roofing materials because I knew I would be hanging planters from the ceiling. There never seems to be enough room in a greenhouse.

Write On!

2009-03-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hey! About that new little symbol in my sidebar that says Write On! Here's the story. I have a real hot button issue. This young lady was blogging and the news media picked it up and was very disrespectful. They took it out of context. There is a real elite group of people in mainstream media and they would love to shut down bloggers. To me the internet is good for two things. Sharing information and the free flowing exchange of ideas. Heavy emphasis on FREE. This is just an attempt to eventually shut down free access to information. Let's show our support. Check this out!
Click on this symbol. Put it on your blog if you are so inclined.

With a Little Help From My Friends...

2009-03-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

A 60 degree angle on the south facing wall is the goal. The reason for this is so the sun in the summer time will not directly come into the greenhouse, overheating it, but in the winter time when light is scarce, it will capture it all. There is a formula that I used to determine the proper angle to get the best sky radiation. I got this angle from "The Solar Greenhouse" book by James C. McCullagh. I think it is as easy as just adding 20 degrees to your latitude to get you slope. The trick is trying to build the frame, so we did a "mock up". That's a fancy word for using inexpensive, small scrap material to figure out the angles and take measurements for the real construction project.

Notice the blue roll we are holding in the above photo. That's just insulation between the top of the cement walls and the wood structure. The big thing to notice is the white stuff in this picture. I insulated all the outside walls, after I waterproofed them with just a paint on product that I picked up at Home Depot. The insulation is two inch thick foam, 8' X 4' sheets. The reason that I waterproofed the blocks is that I didn't want the mortar getting wet and water seeping through my cinder blocks. It's probably overkill. I did fill the walls with cement and rebar, and I live in a desert that has the best drainage of any place I have ever lived. I was raised in Seattle so I thought the world was made of mud and rain. You can imagine my surprise when I found blue sky and sunshine in eastern Oregon. I moved here in 1983 with my family. A wife and three kids. We love this area.

Here you have the real structure going up. My friend Hank, is standing on the south side of the structure. You can see that we are using 4" X 4" 's as the up and downs to brace the roof because we know it is going to be heavy. I will be using 2" X 8" on the roof to support the span and to also hold the weight of the tin roof and insulation. Just as importantly, I may be hanging planters from the ceiling to eliminate wasted space. Notice the funny sticks as you are looking at this picture. They are just tacked on to steady the stucture until we start nailing and screwing it together. Hank is a "Renaissance Man" that knows more about everything, than most people know about anything. He is on a number of groups online that analyze and study sustainability. He was talking about peak oil way before anyone really wanted to know about it.

Here is a shot from the northeast of the greenhouse showing the berm of dirt that has been pushed up against the north wall, finishing the "heat sink".

Here you can see the roof coming together. We are starting to frame in for the windows on the south side. They are nothing more than sliding glass doors that I got at garage sales. Less than 30 dollars for all of them. Also, if I haven't mentioned it, the blocks are all seconds, this affects only the color, not the integrity of the block. I bought all the mismatched ones. They were happy to sell them to me. The whole load of blocks was less than 500 dollars. Half price from what the big stores wanted. This photo is taken from the northwest of the structure. Remember, if you need any details at all, leave a comment and I will get back with you to answer questions.

Notice the sliding glass doors don't go all the way to the top. No problem, I am going to put in clear greenhouse material to cover that area. The two big sliding glass doors in the middle slide open, they actually work! That is part of my summer cooling plan. The panels on each side of the sliding glass doors are stationary. They were part of a sliding glass door but I took them out of their frame. Note the metal "ties" that are holding the corners together. I don't know what they are called, but they sure work good. Hanks idea again.

Here is a shot from the inside of the stucture, looking out. Oh, by the way, the other guy helping is Mark. He is an archaeologist. We found him wandering around out here in the desert, looking at rocks and fossils. Currently he is volunteering at the University of Oregon cataloging really old stuff. We have known Mark for a few years and he loves the Fort Rock basin. He is a real inspiration and a lot of help. I think he has a strong background in construction because he knew all the secrets and shortcuts. Thanks Mark.

This is a view from the southeast. Remember when you build something that is not traditional, everyone calls it "Noah's Ark". Hope it works.

Notice the cement stairs. That was a project that couldn't have been done without my neighbor Spence. You saw him at the beginning and during the building of the walls. He is the real pro in our community.

Here is Hank to the left, me in the middle and Mark. Very proud of ourselves to have gotten to this point. Notice the greenhouse, rigid plastic closing in the gaps.

Here we are on the roof. I used plywood to hold it all together. You will see the metal roofing in a future post.

That is my dog "Drago". He is such a picture hound (arghh arghh). I painted the plywood with some paint that I had on hand. Then I put tarpaper down prior to the metal roofing.

Greenhouse Taking Shape

2009-02-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

This post will show the continuation of the walls going up. It took several weeks because we could only do so many layers and then had to stop and let the mortar cure. The first two photos show the project looking from the east to the west of the building. My doorway is on the east side.

Note the string attached to the rebar at the corners. This is the secret to building a straight wall. Line up the string, flush to the corner and place your block right at the string. You can raise the string as the bricks go higher.

In this next photo, note the bricks on the foundation. They are eight inches wide and are centered on the foundation. The foundation is 12 inches wide, so there are two inches on either side of the cement bricks.

You can see here that we have made progress with the walls and have just poured the footings for the stairwell.

Here is a side view of the stairwell in progress. Notice the upright rebar to lend strength.

Another view of the stairwell with the work further along.

View of the north wall from the outside, before the dirt berm got pushed up against it.

View of stairwell before stairs are poured.

Here is a shot of the forms for the stairs.

In this photo you can see that the cement truck has come back again and is doing a pour for our stairs. We also ordered enough to pour into the walls on all sides to make a truly solid wall. The intention is not just strength, but a solid wall will better hold heat in the winter and insulate against heat in the summer.

It is difficult to see, but we built a sort of funnel to direct the cement into the bricks.

In this last photo, you see the cement truck has left, and the walls are finished. The cement is still wet inside the bricks and it will take some time to cure.

The Walls Are Started!

2009-02-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

So where were we in building this greenhouse? We had just finished the foundation for the walls. It was October (2006) and getting cold so we covered everything with hay for the winter and put buckets over all the upright pieces of rebar so that my dog would not impale himself on them if he jumped into the hole.
The next spring we uncovered the foundation. Then in July we finally had the time to begin building the walls. This first photo shows our foundation with a few bricks ready to be laid. My friend Spence, who was born with cement in his veins and two bricks in each hand, knows cement work. He is on hand to guide and teach me in this venture. I am really grateful for all his time and help.

The first corner is critical in getting your walls going in the right direction. You can see that here in this photo. There is also a close up of the corner in the next photo. Here you also see, the wheelbarrow where we mixed the mortar and the hose close at hand for adjusting moisture in the mortar. Also, note that the upright rebar coming from the foundation lends strength and stability to the walls.

This photo shows Spence on the left and me, Dan, with my Dad in the background supervising. This is where we stopped for the day. Time to let the mortar set up solid before we continue with building upward.

Next post will continue the wall building and the stairwell that we built. It was very time intensive but also interesting. It's nice having good, solid steps going into the greenhouse. If you have any questions along the way just post them in comments and I will try to answer them.

Greenhouse Design

2009-02-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

I realized that I needed to take a step back and explain what my objectives are in building this greenhouse and the design that I have chosen. I live in the high desert with temperatures ranging from -20 for weeks at a time to 110 in the summer. I've been gardening in this climate for over 20 years. I've had cold frames, and have one traditional, above ground greenhouse. I also have raised beds and garden plots. Here's a photo of how my new greenhouse looks today.

The type greenhouse I have chosen and built is called a "Pit Greenhouse". I got the general idea from a book I have called "The Solar Greenhouse Book by James McCullagh and printed by Rodale press. This type greenhouse is designed for extreme temperatures. The premise is that you use the ambient temperature of the earth ( at four feet below surface) to keep a steady 50 degree temperature all year round. Of course it needs a little help to keep the temperature just right. I will explain this as I show how it has been built.
When it is complete, I plan to experiment with different methods of gardening. I've always been an organic gardener, but I plan to try the Mittleider method, hydroponics, aquaponics and of course some of my traditional organic gardening techniques. I'm building this greenhouse as a laboratory, open to the public. I plan on documenting temps, lighting, nutrients, home made aquaponic and hydroponic equipment. I've read the latest mags such as Maximum Yield and Garden Greenhouse and Gardener and I've seen the pretty pictures, but everything is too expensive. This is a back to basics experiment and I'm only interested in growing food. (cucumbers, tomatoes, brocolli, lettuce and many greens). My goal is sustainability for my family. Being able to grow year round in an area that is not gardening friendly. I also raise chickens...I'm the 4-H poultry leader for my area. I feel that the food chain is being compromised and people need to have more direct control over what they eat. I believe in buying locally, but most of all growing your own.
Be sure to ask questions. When it is all done, and up and running, perhaps you can even come visit. When it is running well I will be posting pictures and information often. My next post will continue the building sequence. Soon to come...

Second Stage - The Foundation

2009-02-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

Foundations are everything. Here are a few tips:

1) I tried to go cheap and dig trenches for my foundation. Something like eight inches deep and ten inches wide. WRONG! You want foundations to be, if at all possible, on undisturbed earth. Buy the 2 X 8's and build your foundation above ground, not inset into the ground. My friend who is a contractor, saw my ditches and made me spend the money to put the wood inside because he said they were totally inadequate. I could have saved lots of time by not trying to save money by digging a ditch foundation. They are poor quality.

2) Be sure to use rebar and suspend it two inches off the dirt. Like pounding in little pieces of rebar and tying your long ones to it. Use the big diameter rebar for strength. You can see how to do this in the next two photos.

3) Don't throw rocks and pieces of metal into your foundation footings. They just make weak pockets. I used to throw in rocks, scrap metal and pieces of old cement. Bad, bad.

4) The reason you want a strong cement foundation (and some people told me mine looked like a sidewalk) is so your walls don't come tumbling down. I'm using cinder blocks filled with cement and rebar for my walls. 4 foot walls on the south, west and east side and 8 feet on the north (my potential heat sink).

The first two photos show the cement truck delivering the cement to my foundation.

After the foundation was poured, because it was October, I put black plastic over it. Two days later I threw in a two foot layer of old, moldy, free hay. This was for insulation purposes to take me through the winter. The buckets you see in the photo were covering upright rebar, which is to help tie in the walls. I put the buckets over the rebar so my boisterous rottweiler would not impale himself on the rebar. He wanted to play in the hole all the time, even trying to jump across it.

I had a load of cinder blocks delivered. I bought "seconds". That means the colors varied, not that they were broken structurally. I saved a bundle. Next post will show the walls going up!

Stage One - Digging the hole

2009-02-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

These photos document the first stages of building my pit greenhouse. Location is everything. You need to locate it with a clear southern exposure. After I dug this hole I learned that this greenhouse should have been tilted slightly to the west. My greenhouse site faces directly south.

I was going to dig this by hand which was feasible because we do not have rocks where I live, but my friend offered to use his tractor. The hole will be four feet deep because I am trying to use the ambient temperature of the earth to help keep my greenhouse at a stable temperature. Warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Still digging...

The pile of dirt is growing. That is Fort Rock in the background. I had no idea how much dirt comes out of a hole that is four feet deep by 22 feet long, by 14 feet wide.

We have reached the four foot level.

The foundation dimensions will be twenty by twelve. You always want a bigger greenhouse, but this seemed to be the most economical. Next post will show the foundation.